1. The Heichinrou Chinese restaurant in the Amari Watergate Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand is one of the
more elegant hotel Chinese restaurants in the city. With its red and black lacquered furniture, highly
polished teak wood floors and muted lighting it exudes an aura of sophistication and grandeur that is
accentuated by the highly stylized twin columns and wall decoration facing the long entranceway. And
as well as the main dining area there are six private rooms that can each seat up to 14 people in
traditional Chinese style.
I dined there at lunchtime during the Chinese New Year period (January, 2009) and sampled one of the
chef’s special dishes created just for the holiday. He also has created a number of other dishes that are
included on the regular ala carte menu which I had the pleasure of trying as well. This menu has quite a
few of the traditional Chinese dishes you would expect to find in any high-end Chinese restaurant and
some of the chef’s own recipes also.
The special New Year’s dish was a salmon salad that contained slices of excellent smoked salmon tossed
with thin-sliced green vegetables and jellyfish strips and was covered with a sweet, gingery dressing that
accentuated the smokiness of the fish. It was an great way to start the meal and was followed by a
Szechuan-style hot and sour soup that contained some authentic flavors from this southwestern Chinese
province, including enough vinegar to provide the sour part of the equation, with almost enough spice
to make it hot enough for my palate. Yours very well could have been satisfied, however.
The salmon was a great dish but what may have been the highlight of the meal was the second of the
chef’s own recipes that I tried, the baked chicken pieces covered with almond flakes. These were hard to
stop eating and were unique to any Chinese menu I had ever seen. Steamed sand goby followed and this
delicate white fish was steamed with julienne-style green onions on top of it and a tasty, yet unobtrusive
light brown sauce underneath it. The freshness of the fish and the complementary flavor of the sauce
made this an interesting dish as well.
My final course was a fried rice dish that contained scallops and fish roe. The slight sweetness of the
scallops offset the briny flavor of the roe creating a balanced flavor that was more complex than the
usual fried rice combinations. I didn’t have a chance to try the dim sum menu that is offered daily so
cannot report on what it has to offer.
If you’re looking for a place for a special occasion that will provide you with some unique flavors in
stylish dishes then Heichinrou should definitely be considered. As well as the elegant appearance here,
there is some solid cooking going on behind the scenes that will surprise and satisfy the discriminating
diner.